In 'The Matter with Things', Iain McGilchrist delves into the neuroscience, epistemology, and metaphysics of the brain's hemispheres and their impact on human perception and understanding. The book is divided into two volumes: 'The Ways to Truth' and 'What Then is True?'. McGilchrist argues that the left hemisphere's dominance has led to a skewed perception of the world, neglecting the vital role of the right hemisphere in integrating science, reason, intuition, and imagination. He explores topics such as attention, perception, judgement, and the nature of reality, including concepts like time, space, consciousness, and the sacred. The book is a call to re-enchant the world and ourselves by recognizing the deeper, more holistic understanding provided by the right hemisphere[1][3][4].
This book argues that the division of the brain into two hemispheres is essential to human existence, allowing for two incompatible versions of the world. The left hemisphere is detail-oriented, prefers mechanisms to living things, and is inclined to self-interest, while the right hemisphere has greater breadth, flexibility, and generosity. McGilchrist takes the reader on a journey through the history of Western culture, illustrating the tension between these two worlds as revealed in the thought and belief of thinkers and artists from ancient to modern times. He argues that the increasing dominance of the left hemisphere in today’s world has potentially disastrous consequences.
Dr. Jordan B. Peterson sits down in-person with psychiatrist, researcher, and philosopher Dr. Iain McGilchrist. They discuss right brain/left brain hemispheric specialization, the basis of delusion, “unknowing” as a necessary step toward wisdom, consciousness and the divine ground of being, and the imposition of mediocrity in the modern West.
Dr. Iain McGilchrist is a psychiatrist, neuroscience researcher, philosopher and literary scholar. He is a Quondam Fellow of All Souls College, Oxford, an Associate Fellow of Green Templeton College, Oxford, a Fellow of the Royal College of Psychiatrists, and former Consultant Psychiatrist and Clinical Director at the Bethlem Royal & Maudsley Hospital, London. He has been a Research Fellow in neuroimaging at Johns Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore and a Fellow of the Institute of Advanced Studies in Stellenbosch. He has published original articles and research papers in a wide range of publications on topics in literature, philosophy, medicine and psychiatry. He is the author of a number of books, but is best-known for The Master and his Emissary: The Divided Brain and the Making of the Western World (Yale 2009). In November 2021 his two-volume work The Matter with Things: Our Brains, Our Delusions, and the Unmaking of the World was published by Perspectiva Press.
- Links -
2024 tour details can be found here https://jordanbpeterson.com/events
Peterson Academy https://petersonacademy.com/
For Iain McGilchrist:
Website https://channelmcgilchrist.com/
On X https://twitter.com/dr_mcgilchrist?lang=en
The Matter With Things (Book) https://tinyurl.com/5d3cfns6
The Master and His Emissary (Book) https://tinyurl.com/3p4favfe
The Jordan B. Peterson Podcast 
